by Max Lockwood
“It’s locked,” she said, frantically turning the door. Panic filled her body. They had come this far, and now they would lose everything they worked for, just because of a stupid locked door.
“Calm down,” Melissa said. “Did you even look for the key?”
“The key!” Natalia exclaimed, scrambling over to check the guard. She found a key ring attached to a belt loop and yanked it off. Flipping through the keys, she searched until she found one that would fit.
She tested a few before finding the right one. Her heart stopped when the key slipped into the lock.
Taking a deep breath, Natalia pushed the door open, ready to see Will’s smiling face. She just hoped he wasn’t upset at her for not rescuing him sooner. But, knowing Will, no matter what shape he was in, he would greet her with a big hug.
The room was dark, so she felt along the walls for a light switch. The second she entered the room, she was sure Will had been there. It just smelled so familiar, like riding in the backseat of the truck, or falling asleep in his arms at the hotel. It was definitely his room.
Finally, she found the switch and turned on the light to reveal an unoccupied room.
“No,” she whispered, confused. The mattress on the ground had a crumpled blanket on top, as if someone just left for a moment to use the bathroom or get something to eat. Then, she saw his blue baseball hat in the corner.
The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, trying not to scream. Little gasps came out of her mouth, but the tears wouldn’t flow. She was just too devastated by her friend’s absence to even comprehend what was happening.
“Where is he?” she cried, clutching his hat. She felt the bed. It was cold.
“Shut up,” Melissa pleaded. “You’re going to attract attention. He’s not here. We need to leave.”
“No!” she screeched. “We have to keep looking.”
“Okay,” Victoria said sweetly, pulling Natalia off the ground. “Let’s keep looking. There’s still a lot of this building left to search. But we have to get moving.”
Natalia nodded, feeling numb. She let Victoria wrap her arm around her waist, supporting her while she came back to her senses.
Melissa charged back outside into the hallway, ready to go. She had only made it two steps until a gun was aimed at her.
“What do we have here?” Bretton Vincent said as he investigated the scene. The runaways froze in their tracks. They could bludgeon an unsuspecting guard to unconsciousness, but they were no match for a guard with a gun.
Bretton’s bodyguard stood at attention while moving his aim from one person to another. Even Derek looked petrified.
When Natalia heard her father’s voice from outside the room, she stormed outside, ready to hit him with all the strength she had. The sight of Will being restrained by a second guard stopped her in her tracks.
“Will,” she cried, reaching toward him. “What are you doing with him?” she shrieked at her dad.
“I’m sorry, Natalia,” Will said weakly. He looked weary, as if he hadn’t slept for days. “I didn’t mean to leave you alone.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she cried, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I’m sorry I left you.”
“Enough of this,” Bretton said, annoyed. “We don’t have enough isolation chambers for all of them.”
“What the heck is she doing here?” Melissa said, pointing at a quivering Naomi, standing several feet behind Bretton.
“She’s been very helpful,” Bretton said.
“I let him know that there were people out of bed,” she chimed in, proudly. “I thought you could be a danger to yourselves or others.”
Natalia glared at the girl. “Are you kidding me? What is your problem?”
“Hey,” Bretton scolded. “Naomi did the right thing here. I’m very happy that she took the initiative to point out illegal activity to people in charge. She’s just doing her part to keep the camp safe.”
Derek muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Natalia figured that it was something profane and she agreed with whatever he said.
“Do you really think I did a good job?” Naomi asked.
Bretton turned to face her. “Of course you did. It’s people like you who are going to help our organization meet our mission. I’m very proud of you.”
Naomi beamed.
“This is ridiculous,” Natalia said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “My own father is trying to use me for experimental research and he’s treating the stranger that’s helping him do it like his own child. This is so backwards, it’s making my head spin.”
“Enough of the dramatics, Natalia,” Bretton warned.
“Dramatic? You’re the one holding my friend hostage. You’re the one testing your virus stuff on healthy humans. Just let Will go, and we can try to come to some sort of rational understanding.”
Natalia stepped forward and reached for Will’s hand. His cold fingers curled up around her warm hand. It sent a tiny surge of electricity through her body to feel his touch again.
“Don’t touch him,” Bretton shouted abruptly, causing everyone to jump. “He does not belong to you. You have no right to claim him or choose his fate.”
“And you do?”
“This is my camp. The rebel military is paying me a lot of money to carry out my research. I don’t have time for a few nay-sayers to make a mess of things.”
“I’m not letting him go,” Natalia said, squeezing his hand even harder. Will gave her a faint smile.
Bretton pulled something from his lab coat and held it to Will’s neck. “Let go, Natalia.”
“What is that?” she shrieked, pointing at the syringe.
“I don’t want to do this here, but you leave me no choice. Drop his hand or I’m going to have to inject him with my latest work.”
Will’s eyes pleaded with her and she dropped his hand, and took half a step back.
“Okay, okay,” she panted. “I let him go. Put that thing away.”
“Now I’ve found something to motivate people,” Bretton laughed. “No one listens to you when you’re just a virologist working in a university laboratory. Suddenly, you have something powerful in your syringe, and everyone takes notice.”
“You’re insane,” Natalia spat. “You acted like you were making a cure, not a weapon. You could have done so much good with your knowledge.”
“In the long run, what I am working on will do good. You’re just too young and naïve to understand that.”
“What do people in the rebel army think you’re doing? Do they know you’re working with dangerous viruses?”
“They know exactly what I’m working on. They’re the ones who sought me out to do this particular assignment. They asked if I could create a particular virus, and I agreed to work with them.”
“Do they know you created the strain that’s killing thousands of people while we speak?”
The hallway was silent, like the entire atmosphere had been sucked out of the room. Everyone looked back and forth from Natalia to Bretton with looks of horror, shock, and confusion on their faces.
“What did you just say?” Bretton sneered. “You have no idea what you’re saying.”
“I know exactly what I’m saying. You’re an inferior scientist to Elaina Morgan. You ripped off her work and made a more dangerous virus, then spread it. You let her take the heat while you continue to do horrible things. I want everyone to know the truth. Everything that is happening in the world is your fault. This is all your fault.”
Bretton lunged at his daughter and all hell broke loose. Guards rushed to pull bodies away from Bretton. Will and Melissa fought one guard while Derek and Victoria tried to subdue the other. Derek managed to pull out his makeshift weapon and knock out his guard, then moved onto the next one.
“Get off me,” Natalia screamed at her father, who was pinning her down with a malevolent grin on his face. She jammed her knee into his stomach, sending his sprawling on his back.
In th
e scuffle, Naomi managed to get Derek’s pipe away from him and started swinging it at whomever came anywhere near her. Melissa got caught in her swing and the hard metal came into contact with her ribs. She fell to the floor with a scream and tried to drag herself away from the madness.
Hearing Melissa’s scream, Derek wrestled the pipe away from Naomi and pushed her as hard as he could, sending her flying down the hall. With both her body and her pride injured, Naomi was slow to get up and rejoin the melee.
The remaining guard managed to raise his gun and fired two shots, at no specific target. Derek swung the pipe at the guard’s hand, breaking his wrist and disarming him. The, he finished the job, whacking the guard repeatedly on the head and body until he fell still and silent.
Bretton, the only remaining threat, scurried backwards when he realized that his guards were down. He got to his feet and ran in the opposite direction, looking for a safe place to hide from the runaways. Naomi, finding herself in the same predicament, followed Bretton.
“Is everyone okay?” Melissa asked, holding her injured side.
“Victoria got shot,” Will said, kneeling over her. He had his hands pressed firmly on her upper thigh.
The others gathered around to see the damage. Victoria was trying to downplay her injury, but her face was ghostly white and a puddle of blood was spreading out over the tile floor.
Derek and Will worked together to tie a tourniquet around Victoria’s leg to stem the flow of blood. Will ripped his old bed sheet up into strips to bandage her leg. They wrapped her leg tightly until the blood stopped seeping through the sheet.
“That’s the best we can do right now,” Derek said, wiping the blood from his hands onto his pants. “Will, help her up.”
“How are those ribs, Melissa?” Derek asked, turning to her.
“Hurts like hell, but I’ll survive,” she winced.
“Natalia, how about you?” Derek asked, checking on the last of his team.
“I—I don’t know,” she stuttered, holding onto her neck with one hand.
“Did you get hit?” Derek asked, moving her hand aside to see the damage.
He looked at her neck, expecting to see a welt or laceration. Instead, he found the smallest pinprick on her skin.
“Did he inject you with the virus?” Derek asked. The others turned to face her, looks of horror on their faces.
She nodded tearfully. “Yes.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Everything felt like a blur to Natalia. She wasn’t even seriously injured like Victoria was, but she still felt like her life was draining out of her. She tried to stand up, but nearly fainted. She stayed on the floor and pushed herself against the wall, hoping that a few moments of sitting upright would make her feel better.
Nobody wanted to immediately approach her, which was completely understandable. She didn’t know what the virus would do to her body. Apparently, it was her father’s newest strain, something that was no doubt unpredictable. However, if her father had anything to do with it, everyone knew it was dangerous.
Natalia took a few deep breaths to calm down. Once she regained a little bit of her composure, she realized that, physically, she felt no worse for wear, besides a nagging feeling in her stomach. If her father really injected her with his virus, then she wasn’t feeling any symptoms yet. She prayed that his recent incompetence in the field resulted in a relatively harmless virus.
“Let’s move,” Derek urged his fellow escapees, waving his arms frantically. Natalia tried to stand, but was still feeling a little woozy. However, she managed to slowly get to her feet.
Will rushed over to steady her, leaving Melissa in charge of supporting Victoria on her injured leg.
“I’m fine,” Natalia said, standing up a little straighter, but still thankful for Will’s support. “I just feel a little faint from the shock of it all, nothing more.”
“You can get on my back,” Will offered, his strength returning with the flow of adrenaline. “We might move faster that way.”
“No,” Derek said. “Leave her. She can’t come with us.”
Will furrowed his brow. “I’m not leaving Natalia. If she doesn’t leave, then I don’t leave, either.”
“If you stay, you’ll die.”
“So be it,” Will retorted.
Derek sighed, growing more anxious by the minute. “You’re an idiot. She’s infected with the virus. Pretty soon, she’ll go into the rage and try to infect or kill us, too. That’s the whole reason why we’re trying to get out of here. If you wanted to get infected, you should have stayed behind for involuntary testing.”
“He’s right,” Natalia said softly, biting her quivering lip.
“No, he’s not,” Will interjected. “We don’t even know what you were injected with. It might not be such a big deal. We can’t leave you behind if we don’t know for sure that you’re dangerous.”
“But what if she is?” Melissa asked. “What will we do?”
“We’ll cross that bridge if we ever come to it,” Will said.
“Fine,” Derek growled, picking up the guards’ guns. He pocketed one and tossed the other to Melissa. “But if she starts to attack someone, I’m knocking her out and leaving her on her own.”
“That’s fair,” Natalia said, walking on her own now. “So, how are we going to get out of here? I’m sure more soldiers are on their way.”
“This is ridiculous,” Melissa grumbled under her breath. “I mean, this is so stupid. If the three of us had just left when we had the chance, none of this would have ever happened.”
“We should rescue as many innocent lives as possible,” Victoria said faintly.
“Whatever,” Derek said angrily. “We don’t have time to argue this any longer. When we get out of this building, we’ll decide how we want to deal with this later. Melissa, take the lead again. I’ll hold onto Victoria. If anyone tries to stop you, shoot them.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied, holding her gun in front of her.
They surged ahead, Melissa leading the way, with the others staggering behind. They had only made it down one length of hallway when guards started running toward them.
Without warning, Melissa opened fire on the guards, sending a spray of bullets across the hall. Soldiers collapsed to the ground, unprepared to deal with armed runaways. Survivors grasped at their ankles and they clutched their bullet wounds but the five escapees managed to run through them.
“We need backup in corridor five,” Natalia heard a soldier say into a radio. “We have a group of subjects headed toward the door.”
“Run,” Natalia yelled ahead. “They’ve just called for backup.”
The group picked up the pace, Melissa running at a full sprint. She pushed open a door that led to complete darkness.
Suddenly, searchlights came on, blinding them with such a rapid change in light. They all scrambled forward, hands in front of them, looking for a way out.
“There’s a Jeep,” Victoria shouted, pointing into the darkness.
Natalia thought she must have been losing too much blood, because there was no vehicle to be seen. Victoria must have hallucinated it.
“I see it,” Will yelled, pulling Natalia toward it.
Once her eyes adjusted, she spotted the rectangular vehicle. She ran toward it without stopping to look back at the soldiers who were pursuing them.
“Stop and lower your weapons,” a voice boomed over a loud speaker. “We have you surrounded.”
Natalia froze and looked around. She could see soldiers scrambling outside, but it didn’t appear that they were surrounded at all. In fact, the soldiers looked extremely ill-prepared for a fight.
“They’re bluffing,” she said softly, so only her companions could hear. She had a gut feeling about it.
“She’s right,” Victoria said. “They don’t have enough soldiers at the ready to fight. I say we challenge them.”
“Right,” Derek said. “Will, can you drive? I think the keys are already in the
ignition.”
“Yes,” Will said eagerly, climbing into the front seat.
“Natalia, help Victoria into the back seat,” Derek ordered. “Melissa, take the passenger seat. I’ll stand on the back of the vehicle and fire at any threats.”
Everyone hurried into position. Natalia could see soldiers gaining on them and it was making her heart race. Each soldier was armed with a gun. Their group only had two, one of them being held by an amateur.
Derek took precise, controlled shots, picking off soldiers as they neared the vehicle. He watched and waited for the right moment before taking aim and firing.
On the other hand, Melissa was firing recklessly at anyone she could see. Natalia worried she would run out of bullets before they got out of there. But, whatever she was doing, it was working.
“Drive,” Derek bellowed from the back of the truck.
“Where?” Will replied. “I don’t know where we are.”
“It doesn’t matter. Just go, and go as fast as you can.”
Will obliged, stomping on the gas pedal so hard that Natalia had to brace herself against the seat in front of her. She ducked her head down into her lap as bullets struck the frame of the car, ricocheting off, leaving tiny sparks. Once Will found a main road, he dimmed the headlights, then turned them completely off once they made it to the highway.
“I think we’ve lost them,” Derek said, relaxing a little at his post.
Will let out a whoop. The excitement in his voice made Natalia feel more at ease. “That was pretty thrilling,” he said.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Derek warned. “Keep driving. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to come after us. We have a lot of intelligence about something they definitely don’t want the rest of the public to know. We’re moving targets.”
“We can outrun them” Will said.
“Not for long. We need to make the right moves. This is a strategy game now. They will eventually mobilize their army and will be able to overpower us when it comes to manpower and weapons.”
“Are you saying we don’t stand a chance?” Melissa asked, lowering her gun.